Spoiler : Reed, Walter (birth name was Walter Reed Smith) Born at Fort Ward, Bainbridge Island, Washington 2/10/1916; died 8/20/2001 of kidney failure at his home in Santa Cruz, California. Reed had been living in Santa Cruz since 1967 when he began phasing out his acting career, pursuing a new role as a real estate investor and broker. Brother of singer-actor Jack Smith. Reed was the son of an Army artillery major, and grew up in Hawaii and Los Angeles. His career began in 1929 when he played an Indian in the movie, "Redskin." At 17 he moved to New York, working in stock companies and on Broadway. In 1941 he was in a theater production in Maine when actor Joel McCrea met him after the show telling him he should enter films, two weeks later he signed a contract with RKO Pictures. He served in the Army during WWII, appearing in the Army Air Corps show, "Winged Victory" that was produced by Moss Hart. Last movie was a 1969 tele-film, The Monk. Television actor from the early 1950s until the late 1960s.

Spoiler : In 2000, Reed received a Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture and Tele- vision Fund. The award is the western-movie equivalent of an Academy Award. In July of 2001. In July of 2001, Santa Cruz declared Walter Reed Day when a large crowd greeted Reed's arrival at a movie theater in a white horse-drawn carriage for a showing of "Seven Men from Now," Budd Boetticher's 1956 western, which was recently restored by UCLA. In the film, Reed plays Gail Russell's tenderfoot husband, who is menaced by Lee Marvin's character. In front of the theater, Reed imprinted his hands and feet in a slab of wet cement.